-Livemint.com India’s weather office has forecast a normal monsoon. Bountiful rains in the June-to-September period are critical for about 800 million Indians who depend directly or indirectly on farming New Delhi: Gangabhishan Thaware, a 53-year-old farmer from the drought-prone Marathwada region of Maharashtra, took an unusual step in July last year. Thaware and his fellow villagers had toiled on their fields and spent thousands of rupees on seeds and fertilizers, hopeful...

-The Indian Express Curbing stubble burning is about inducing behavioural changes in farmers. Given that crop residue burning has an environmental footprint and poses health hazards, one needs to be cautious while evaluating the Centre’s policy to mitigate the crisis. But there is also an urgent need for such an evaluation. The Centre has allocated Rs 1,050 crore to the states where crop residue burning poses a pollution hazard. The Union Ministry...

-The Hindu Business Line Good kharif crop, govt thrust on agri and rural segments boost sector’s Q3 performance Chennai: Encouraged by the continuing momentum in sales, the tractor industry hopes to end the current fiscal with highest-ever domestic volumes close to 6.8 lakh units. The industry’s previous highest domestic number was in 2013-14 when domestic sales stood at 6.34 lakh units. Tractor companies and industry analysts project a growth rate of 17-18 per cent...

-The New Indian Express KURNOOL: Prices of tomatoes have crashed to as low as 50 paise per kg at Pattikonda and Alur wholesale markets of Kurnool district after a bumper harvest and low demand, leaving farmers in tears. After transporting the produce to the market by incurring a huge cost, the farmers come to know that the prices have slumped a new low.  Not knowing what to do — whether...

-Livemint.com At a pre-budget consultation, farmers and agriculture economists call for steps to reduce input costs New Delhi: Farmers on Tuesday urged finance minister Arun Jaitley to statutorily ensure income security for them and simultaneously take steps to reduce input costs and thereby make farming profitable. The suggestions from the Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations (CIFA) and agriculture economists was made at the first of the pre-budget consultation. “The median agriculture income is...